family, travel, writing

November 2012

This year Thanksgiving had a few twists and last-minute turns. We’d planned to celebrate with my parents in San Jose, but a week earlier jointly decided it would make more sense to gather in Berkeley. My parents were winding down their 2-week-long babysitting stint for the Ham kids while Stacie and German adopted Zoe from China. And we Rapozas wanted to travel to Roseville the day after Thanksgiving to meet our newest family member. Thanksgiving in Berkeley meant less prep stress for Mom, and less travel stress for us.

It also meant our first chance to host turkey dinner in our “new” house. We’d hosted a handful of times at our Alcatraz pad with it’s modern convection oven, and had successfully roasted two chickens at once in our newly-acquired 1940’s Wedgewood oven, but had yet to put our kitchen centerpiece to the 13-pound turkey test. Hosting also allowed us to invited the Schultzes to join us and my parents for a relaxing afternoon of food, festivities, and plenty to drink.

On Friday we hopped in the van and headed up to Roseville to meet 17-month-old Zoe and welcome her to the extended family. She had a cold and was still adjusting to a brand-new life with three brand-new siblings, but enjoyed waving and saying “hi” over and over, and watching the other kids indulge in plenty of good ole’ cousin playtime. We can’t wait to see her (and the whole Ham clan) again for Christmas next month!

What a jam-packed Halloween we had this year! On my agenda were two school parades (preschool and elementary), volunteering at the Halloween centers in Melina’s classroom, a half day of work, a parade and costume contest at the community center around the corner (also home to Melina and Kai’s after school program), and finally a potluck with trick-or-treating at the Beelers. Phew!

Melina had been looking forward to Halloween with as much enthusiasm as she counts down to her birthday and Christmas. It’s a big deal. And it didn’t disappoint: she had a full bag of treats before she even left kindergarten for the afternoon, and it only grew from there. The rec center party was especially impressive: they paraded for nearly a mile, with a few police escorts down the busier streets. And afterwards the auditorium was packed with costume contest participants.

We also got a chance to trick-or-treat down our block on the way home. Nalani took it all in stride and got the swing of this candy-asking thing by the second house. (At the first, she knocked, and when someone answered the door she turned and walked away.)